Some thoughts to ponder on everyday life.

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Timing Is Everything

If only I had a quarter for every time this thought has popped into my head over the years, especially recently. Sometimes it’s because of good timing, and sometimes not.

There are occasionally those days where things start going wrong, and they just keep piling up. I have a near miss car accident, something around the house stops working right or breaks, my sink backs up, the kids are argumentative or throw at me some last minute plans that I have to accommodate, and so on. I find myself asking why it all has to happen in one day. I’m already frustrated from the first couple of events, so I don’t always react too well to the rest. Each thing on separate days would be a little easier to swallow. But then I find myself thinking at the end of the day that I’m glad it all happened in one day so that I can put it all behind me and move on, hopefully having a completely different kind of day the next day. Sometimes I am lucky enough to have that happen.

Then there are the times where I am thankful for good timing. Something good happens when I least expect it, and I find myself thinking, “Wow, just what I needed! Perfect timing!” I might come upon some information at the right time to put it to good use, or I’ll have a conversation with one friend that coincidentally helps me with a particular situation. Maybe a friend or relative will check in with me to see how I am doing, and it will be on a day when everything is going wrong. The best example is meeting new people and feeling like they came into my life right at the right time. Sometimes I don’t always realize right away how good the timing is, but I get it eventually. The relationship I am in now is a perfect example of that.

Unfortunately, there were several years where it was pretty doom and gloom for me with more significant things going wrong all at the same time. My kids were a major challenge, my marriage was falling apart, I was having various health issues, and so on. Those things were more long term and harder to put behind me and hope for a better tomorrow, especially dealing with all them at the same time. Some of the time I could stay positive, but often it all got to me. What helped was focusing on the things I could be grateful for, especially those little things that happened every so often that seemed to be good timing, like a friend checking in on me or my mom offering to help with something or just listen without offering any advice. I think that’s why I tend to check in on my friends and family members pretty regularly because I know what a difference that has made in my life.

Life definitely has its ups and downs, and timing is sometimes not good at all for certain things. Just when we think things can’t get any worse, it does. We need those times to appreciate the better times, so it’s often a matter of perspective how we choose to look at situations and react to them. We can’t always see that though while in the midst of the storm, whether it is a hurricane or passing shower. But hopefully after it has passed, we can find the rainbow and appreciate the sunshine. There’s never a bad time for those!